FOUR young people charged in connection with last month’s Palestine Action protest at RAF Brize Norton were told today they will be imprisoned for more than 18 months before facing trial.

Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36 and Lewis Chiaramello, 22, appeared at the Old Bailey accused of plotting to damage two Voyager aircraft on June 20.

They are charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place “knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom” and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

About £7 million worth of damage is alleged to have been caused to the aircraft at the Oxfordshire airbase on June 20 in an incident suggested to have a “terrorist connection,” prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC said.

On the day they were charged, MPs backed the government’s move to ban the direct action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

Mr Polnay added that a provisional trial fixture of six to eight weeks had been identified from January 18 2027, accepting that it was “obviously a considerable distance away” and the length of the trial would depend on whether the defendants accepted being involved in the “physical acts undoubtedly taken.”

Senior judge Ms Justice Cheema-Grubb said that the 2027 trial date meant an “inordinately long time” for the defendants to wait in custody, adding: “The sooner the real issues in this case are identified the better for everyone, particularly in fixing the trial date.”

She is to review the date at a plea hearing on January 16 next year.

Gardiner-Gibson, Jony Cink, both of no fixed address, Jeronymides-Norie, of Barnet, north London, and Chiaramello, of Brent, north London, were remanded into custody.